Panel likely to advise pre-K for all

Saturday

Apr 6, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 6, 2013 at 9:55 AM

The mayor-appointed panel that has been debating ways to improve Columbus schools is likely to recommend offering all Columbus children affordable pre-kindergarten and giving all students and teachers access to laptops, iPads or other devices so that they can learn anywhere.

Jennifer Smith Richards, The Columbus Dispatch

The mayor-appointed panel that has been debating ways to improve Columbus schools is likely to recommend offering all Columbus children affordable pre-kindergarten and giving all students and teachers access to laptops, iPads or other devices so that they can learn anywhere.

For the past three months, the panel of 25 business, community and education leaders picked by Mayor Michael B. Coleman has been hearing testimony from experts. A draft of the first set of improvement ideas was made public last night. It was written by Columbus Education Commission staff members but was based on the group's discussions over 12 meetings. The commission could revise the ideas, and it is to finalize the first set of recommendations on Wednesday.

The recommendations issued last night cover four of six broad areas the panel has been studying: teaching methods, career paths for students, early-childhood education and children's social and health needs. The other two topics - governance and leadership, and high-performing school options - are to be debated at the last meeting, on April 26. That's also when the commission will decide who should be responsible for putting the ideas into action, and when.

At the mayor's behest, the commission promised bold ideas to improve education in Columbus. But the question remains: Who can make change happen? Commission President Eric D. Fingerhut, a former state legislator and higher-education chancellor, said that's on members' minds.

"We are very conscious of the fact that there have been reports like this that have been done in the community that have failed to be fully implemented or even partially implemented," Fingerhut said yesterday.

He acknowledged that the commission is advisory; right now, it has no way to force the district or school board to do anything it suggests. The school board's president, Carol Perkins, is on the commission. She and other board members often have reminded the mayor that the board - not outside groups - runs the district.

The ideas that the commission is to review on Wednesday include:

• Offer affordable (or, for the neediest families, free) pre-kindergarten. Other providers in the community would offer pre-K, so it would be more than just an expansion of the district's existing program. The initial suggestion is that it would be funded with public dollars, though.

• Make "blended learning," or combinations of online and in-person lessons, the norm. That means every student and teacher would need access to laptop computers, iPads or other wireless devices. That would require a complex technology network that should be overseen by a third party - perhaps a nonprofit group. Other districts, including charters, could join.

• Give students more chances to earn college credit or advance toward a career. That means a college or career program should offer something in each of the school district's neighborhood zones. Parents asked for this, Fingerhut said.

• Link schools with social-service agencies, hospitals and other community services. School nurses should be able to share medical information about students with the children's doctors if parents approve. Businesses should offer more student internships, and the city's libraries should play a bigger role in helping students learn. Every Columbus child should have a library card, Fingerhut said, and every library should be linked with schools.

• Create a common electronic record that would follow each student from grade to grade and school to school. The records also would be managed by a third-party group and would follow students to public, private and charter schools.

Some of the topics are familiar ones. For example, Superintendent Gene Harris often lauds the district's existing college-credit programs and has said there should be more. And Harris, who is retiring in June, already has a plan to expand the district's pre-K. The district has 33 pre-K classrooms that serve about 20 percent of its incoming kindergartners. Harris told the school board last month that she wants to add as many as 18 pre-K classrooms this fall in neighborhoods where kids need the most help getting ready for school.

District spokesman Jeff Warner said yesterday that the pre-K expansion isn't finalized, but that increasing pre-K options has been a priority for the district for a long time. The district isn't certain it can afford to expand yet, he said.

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com

@jsmithrichards

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